Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s company behind hit Big Little Lies, valued at $900m in Blackstone deal August 2, 2021 Academy award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine, is selling itself to a newly formed media firm backed by Blackstone Group Inc for an undisclosed sum. The sale will value the company at about $900 million, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Founded in 2016, Hello Sunshine is the women-led production house behind [...]
Nigel Farage has lost his way as voice for the silent majority August 2, 2021 There are some basic rules of public relations which are familiar to anyone with, well, the world. There are some groups which it is folly to challenge, no matter how well argued you think your case is. Nurses, children’s hospitals, veterinarians, cancer researchers: all are best given a wide berth if you’re feeling pugilistic, as [...]
UK to gain new £700m film and TV studio amid streaming goldrush August 1, 2021 The UK is set to gain yet another major film and TV studio complex after private equity giant Blackstone unveiled plans to build a major new hub near London. Funds managed by Blackstone Real Estate Partners and LA-based Hudson Pacific Properties have acquired a 91-acre site in Hertfordshire, 17 miles north of central London, for [...]
Pizza and shopping discounts to be offered to boost vaccine take-up August 1, 2021 People will be offered discounts on pizza, cinema trips and ride sharing apps if they get vaccinated as a part of a campaign by the government to get more young adults to take the vaccine. The government is reportedly speaking to dozens of companies, including coffee and cinema chains, about rolling out a voucher scheme [...]
Former cook Charlotte Worthington serves up gold medal as Team GB success continues August 1, 2021 Former cook Charlotte Worthington served up a gold medal for Team GB in the BMX freestyle as British success in Tokyo continued on Sunday. Worthington, from Manchester, landed the first-ever 360 backflip to be performed in women’s competition, having worked in a Mexican restaurant as she trained for this year’s Games. The 25-year-old’s gold was [...]
A cultural mea culpa: a fragile over-reliance on freelancers and insecurity in the creative arts cannot continue July 31, 2021 In March 2020, I was midway through lecturing at the Sorbonne on plagues and portents in ancient Rome, Meanwhile, it was becoming increasingly clear that something alarming was happening in our own world. The night before I left Paris, I took an evening trip through the Louvre. It was practically empty – no queues by [...]
Socios: The blockchain-enabled fan token platform promising to unlock revenue from the global fanbases of sport’s most famous teams July 31, 2021 Football’s transfer market may have lacked headline-grabbing deals so far this summer but the same can’t be said for Socios. The platform, which sells “fan tokens” offering supporters the chance to influence decisions at their team, has instantly increased visibility with a clutch of major partnerships. Last week Socios announced the launch of an Arsenal [...]
SEC halts Wall Street IPOs of Chinese companies as mulls new risk disclosures July 30, 2021 The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has frozen registrations of Chinese companies for IPOs on US markets while it drafts new guidance for disclosing the risk of a Beijing regulatory crackdown to investors. Chinese companies must not submit registrations for the sales of securities to the SEC until it has formulated new rules on how [...]
Pearson hikes dividend as it swings back to profit July 30, 2021 Education giant Pearson has hiked its dividend for the first half of the year as it swung back to a profit following a torrid pandemic year. The FTSE 100 firm today reported an adjusted operating profit of £127m for the six months to the end of June, compared to a loss of £23m in the [...]
Screenshot: Will the digital advertising boom ever end? July 30, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: You are what you tweet **Will the digital advertising boom ever end? **Esports: Britain’s next big thing? Media Moment of the Week: You are what you tweet You know the scenario: someone says something you don’t like on Twitter and you have an overwhelming urge to rise to [...]